1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to novel liquid agricultural chemical compositions and novel adjuvant compositions for agricultural chemicals.
2. Description of the Related Art
Agricultural chemicals including insecticides, fungicides (or bactericides), herbicides, miticides (or acaricides) and plant growth regulators have been used in various dosage forms, and one example thereof includes a liquid formulation comprising a water-soluble agricultural chemical. In such a liquid formulation, it is desirable that the concentration of the agricultural chemical is as high as possible. However, it is difficult to say that the concentrations of the agricultural chemicals of the liquid agricultural chemical formulations which are now commercially available are satisfactorily high.
It has been attempted to use an inorganic salt(s) as a component of a liquid agricultural chemical formulation, together with a surfactant(s) etc., for the purpose of enhancing the activities of agricultural chemicals. However, in such a liquid agricultural chemical formulation, the chemical interaction between the agricultural chemical or the surfactant and the inorganic salt occurs, thereby salting out the agricultural chemical or the surfactant in some cases. Thus, it has been difficult to prepare a uniform and stable liquid formulation containing an inorganic sat.
An aqueous herbicide composition, which is free from such a problem, in other words, suffers from no salting out, and is stable, is disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication-B No. 7-2608 (published on Jan. 18, 1995) and European Patent Publication-A No. 274,369 (published on Jul. 13, 1988) corresponding thereto. These patent documents describe a composition comprising a water-soluble Glyphosate salt as an agricultural chemical, a quaternary ammonium salt as a surfactant and ammonium sulfate as an inorganic salt, and that the composition of this combination is stable. However, this composition is still insufficient from the viewpoint of the concentration of the agricultural chemical, and salting out occurs in cases when both the inorganic salt and the agricultural chemical are contained in large amounts.